Chester FC assistant manager Jon McCarthy insists the players have the character to put the demoralising defeat to Woking behind them.
The Blues welcome Dover Athletic tonight (7.45pm) in the second of two back-to-back home fixtures viewed as a chance to move up the National League table.
However, the first of those games finished in a 2-1 defeat against a Woking team who had been on a six-match winless run as goals from Dan Holman and John Goddard cancelled out Ross Hannah's late consolation .
Read: What did we learn from Chester's defeat to Woking?
Fourth-placed Dover beat Barrow 3-1 at the weekend and a number of absences will not help Chester's cause with captain Ian Sharps banned, James Roberts (hamstring) almost certain to be missing and Michael Kay taking time off to consider his future while Luke George will need a fitness test on his Achilles.
Even so, McCarthy remains hopeful the squad can bounce back and keep up a good record against teams at the top end of the table.
Watch: Assistant boss Jon McCarthy says Woking defeat 'hard to explain'
McCarthy said: "They do have the character to respond and that's something this group of players have done since the gaffer has been here.
"We still expected them to win against Woking because if we get a goal we think we can get two and that's characteristic of the group we had last year and the ones who carried over.
"I don't doubt that at all so that's why we're surprised when we put in a performance like we did on Saturday.
"We felt like we were in a place to go and win the game so then for it to be the level of performance is hard for us to explain but we'll go and work and we need to put it right on Tuesday.
Read: Jim Green's verdict as the Blues suffer setback with loss to Cards
"We were disappointed because we felt like we were in a place to kick on so we'll go back and get ourselves on another run where we get into that place again and at some point we'll make that breakthrough and we put a little run together where we can break into that top-half.
"Dover will be a more difficult test and I suppose the expectation is different. The fans came with the expectation on Saturday that we would beat Woking and the players need to be able to deal with that and cope with that because that's where we've got to.
"The next level is for us to get that into the players. Against Dover there probably won't be as much expectation and if we can put in a performance the fans will get behind us and that's the bit we have to get through to the players and they have to learn to do."
